Quotes from Penelope Fitzgerald

We were delighted to have a chance of meeting you, Miss Saunders,' said Mrs Fairly, as they sat down. 'We have heard so very little about you.

When they married he wouldn't be able to go on where he was. On the other hand, if she wouldn't have him, he didn't see that he would be able to go on at all.

You can borrow my Blackbird, if you like,' said Ben. This was his new fountain pen, which troubled him. It was guaranteed not to leak, but writers and schoolchildren knew better. Ben wished to be relieved of the responsibility of the Blackbird, without losing his own dignity.

On the night of September the 7th the BBC received the signal for 'Invasion Imminent' from the C in C Home Forces, who now had priority over the Ministry of Information. This signal was followed by another: 'No bells to ring till advise.' By an understandable confusion, however, there were church bells which did start ringing in scattered parishes all over the country. Not one was recorded.

It is a good book, and therefore you should try to sell it to the inhabitants of Hardborough. They won't understand it, but that is all to the good. Understanding makes the mind lazy.

After all, these people were born for joy, he thought.

and believe me, Mrs. Green, she'll be pegging out her own washing until the day she dies.

in every created thing, whether it is alive or whether is what we usually call inanimate, there is an attempt to communicate, even among the totally silent. There is a question being asked, a different question for every entity, which for the most part will never be put into words, even by those who can speak.

En ese momento se dio la vuelta, como movida por una ráfaga de viento.

Hojear libros es parte de la tradición de una libreria -le dijo Florence-. Debes dejar que se queden y toquen los libros.

Ein gutes Buch ist der kostbare Lebenssaft eines meisterlichen Geistes, einbalsamiert und aufbewahrt zum Zweck eines Lebens über das Leben hinaus (...)

El corage y la perseverancia son inútiles si no se ponen a prueba

But he also saw himself as a geognost, a natural scientist, who, as he put it, had come 'to an entirely new land, and dark stars'. The mining industry, it seemed to him, was not a science, but an art.

He enjoyed himself in Salford because, given half a chance, he enjoyed himself anywhere.

But we weren't meant to live alone,' said Frank. 'Life makes its own corrections.

persevering secretary of the Society for Providing Public Access to Places of Interest and Beauty

Wat ik het meest in mensen waardeer is de enige deugd die ze met goden en dieren gemeen hebben, en die je daarom eigenlijk geen deugd kunt noemen. Ik heb het over moed.

But there is something else which I have written and which I want to read to you while I still have time,' Fritz told Karoline. 'It will not truly exist until you have heard it.' 'Is

Ze wist maar al te goed, terwijl ze daar in het doffe namiddaglicht zat met de potsierlijke verzameling kommen en schalen voor haar uitgestald, dat eenzaamheid tot eenzaamheid sprak en dat hij een rechtstreeks appél op haar gevoelens deed.

It was like one of those terrible sights of the racecourse or the battle field where wallowing living beings persevere dumbly in their duty although mutilated beyond repair.

No two people see the external world in exactly the same way. To every separate person a thing is what he thinks it is -- in other words, not a thing, but a think.

To every separate person a thing is what he thinks it is – in other words, not a thing, but a think.

On the whole, I think you should write biographies of those you admire and respect, and novels about human beings who you think are sadly mistaken.

Morality is seldom a safe guide for human conduct.